TeAM YYePG Digitally signed by TeAM YYePG DN: cn=TeAM YYePG, c=US, o=TeAM YYePG, ou=TeAM YYePG, email=yyepg@msn.com Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Date: 2005.02.05 00:26:34 +08'00' Asking Questions The Definitive Guide to Questionnaire Design— For Market Research, Political Polls, and Social and Health Questionnaires, Revised Edition fm.Bradburn 3/12/04 11:28 AM Page v fm.Bradburn 3/12/04 11:28 AM Page i fm.Bradburn 3/12/04 11:28 AM Page ii Asking Questions fm.Bradburn 3/12/04 11:28 AM Page iii Norman M. Bradburn Seymour Sudman Brian Wansink fm.Bradburn 3/12/04 11:28 AM Page iv Asking Questions The Definitive Guide to Questionnaire Design— For Market Research, Political Polls, and Social and Health Questionnaires, Revised Edition fm.Bradburn 3/12/04 11:28 AM Page v Copyright © 2004 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741 www.josseybass.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600, or on the web Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, e-mail: permcoordinator@wiley.com. Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact Jossey-Bass directly call our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-956-7739, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3986, or fax 317-572-4002. Jossey-Bass also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bradburn, Norman M. Asking questions : the definitive guide to questionnaire design—for market research, political polls, and social and health questionnaires / Norman M. Bradburn, Brian Wansink, Seymour Sudman.—Rev. ed. p. cm. Earlier ed. by Sudman and Bradburn with Sudman named first. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-7879-7088-3 (alk. paper) 1. Social sciences—Research. 2. Questionnaires. I. Wansink, Brian. II. Sudman, Seymour. III. Title. H62.B63 2004 300'.72'3—dc22 2004001683 Printed in the United States of America FIRST EDITION PB Printing 10987654321 fm.Bradburn 3/12/04 11:28 AM Page vi at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Contents Preface and Acknowledgments xi The Authors xv Part I. Strategies for Asking Questions 1. The Social Context of Question Asking 3 Part II. Tactics for Asking Questions 2. Asking Nonthreatening Questions About Behavior 35 3. Asking Threatening Questions About Behavior 79 4. Asking Questions About Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions 117 5. Asking and Recording Open-Ended and Closed-Ended Questions 151 6. Asking Questions that Measure Knowledge 179 7. Asking Questions that Evaluate Performance 213 8. Asking Psychographic Questions 243 9. Asking Standard Demographic Questions 261 Part III. Drafting and Crafting the Questionnaire 10. Organizing and Designing Questionnaires 283 11. Questionnaires from Start to Finish 315 vii fm.Bradburn 3/12/04 11:28 AM Page vii 12. Asking Questions FAQs 323 Bibliography and Recommended Readings 335 Glossary 347 Index 367 Appendix A: List of Academic and Not-for-Profit Survey Research Organizations 375 Appendix B: Illinois Liquor Control Commission: College Student Survey 411 Appendix C: Faculty Retention Survey 417 Appendix D: Kinko’s: Open-ended Service Satisfaction Survey 425 viii C ONTENTS fm.Bradburn 3/12/04 11:28 AM Page viii [...]... violation of privacy, although the presumption is in favor of privacy Second, the right of privacy with regard to information refers to people’s right to control data about themselves that they reveal to others They can certainly be asked to reveal data about themselves that may be highly sensitive, but they have the right to control whether they voluntarily answer the question There is no presumption of... changing the subject, they can refuse to answer any individual question or break off the interview The ability of the interviewer to make contact with the respondent and to secure cooperation is undoubtedly important in obtaining the interview In addition, the questionnaire plays a major role in making the experience enjoyable and in motivating the respondent to answer the questions A bad questionnaire, ... voluntarily in surveys They will wish to perform their roles properly, that is, to give the best information they can It is your responsibility to reinforce respondents’ THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF QUESTION ASKING 11 good intentions by designing the questionnaire effectively If the questionnaire requires respondents to recall past events, the question should give them as many aids as possible to achieve accurate... CONTEXT OF QUESTION ASKING 9 from the interview Their only reward is some measure of psychic gratification—such as the opportunity to state their opinions or relate their experiences to a sympathetic and nonjudgmental listener, the chance to contribute to public or scientific knowledge, or even the positive feeling that they have helped the interviewer The willingness of the public to participate in surveys... shares The maxim of 12 ASKING QUESTIONS quality says that speakers will not say anything they know to be false The maxim of relation indicates that speakers will say things that are relevant to the topic of the ongoing conversation The maxim of quantity enjoins speakers to make what they say as informative as possible and not to be repetitive The maxim of manner requires speakers to be clear rather than... than a face-toface interview but more than a self-administered questionnaire To compensate for the lack of interaction, the self-administered questionnaire, whether paper-and-pencil or electronic, must depend entirely on the questions and written instructions to elicit accurate responses and motivate the respondent to participate in the study The interviewer does not have the opportunity to encourage... question is very difficult to understand, and it is not clear what the investigators were trying to find out The Nuances of Politically Charged Issues Yet even when there are no deliberate efforts to bias the question, it is often difficult to write good questions because the words to describe the phenomenon being studied may be politically charged The terms used to describe the area of concern may be... compulsion to answer our questions They must be persuaded to participate in the interview, and their interest (or at least patience) must be maintained throughout If questions are demeaning, embarrassing, or upsetting, respondents may terminate the interview or falsify their answers Unlike the job applicant or the patient answering a doctor’s questions, respondents have nothing tangible to gain THE SOCIAL... If the questionnaire makes it difficult for respondents to follow these maxims, an uncomfortable interaction between the interviewer and respondent can result Respondents’ answers can also be distorted (The importance of these principles for questionnaire design is discussed in Chapters Four and Five.) Investigators should try to avoid asking respondents for information they do not have If such questions. .. make certain the store was open, he arrived at the store on Saturday only to find a sign on the door that said “Closed Labor Day Weekend.” When asked if he remembered what question he had asked the clerk at the store, he said, “I asked him what hours he was open on Saturday, and he replied ‘Nine to five.’” This story illustrates the basic challenge for those who engage in the business of asking questions . email=yyepg@msn.com Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Date: 2005.02.05 00:26:34 +08'00' Asking Questions The Definitive Guide to Questionnaire Design For Market Research,. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Contents Preface and Acknowledgments xi The Authors xv Part I. Strategies for Asking Questions 1. The Social Context of Question Asking. Asking Questions 2. Asking Nonthreatening Questions About Behavior 35 3. Asking Threatening Questions About Behavior 79 4. Asking Questions About Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions 117 5. Asking